Bungendore Park

Admiral Rd off Albany Hwy not far from Armadale. Bungendore Park has an entrance on the Albany Hwy before Admiral Rd.

You can visit both these places as they are close to each other but they really need more than a day each to explore. Bungendore park has good clear walking trails. It is mainly a regrowth area of Jarrah and Marri trees with Grass trees, Parrot bush etc. We saw parrots, honeyeaters, red robin, fantails, monarch butterflies, skinks, quacking frogs, fungi and 8 Red tailed black cockatoos feeding in the Marri tree on the gum nuts. Their beaks cracking open the seed pods sounded like that bubble wrap popping and they were very tolerant of us standing right under the tree while they ate. Wungong Dam has picnic facilities and toilets but you have to park your vehicle outside the gates if you plan to stay after 6pm as they are shut every night.

I have returned to Bungendore Park in late June and so much more was flowering I would say this is a great time of year to visit and do the walk trails from the Admiral Rd entrance. In the parrot bush on the Spinebill stroll (which I accidentally ended up on from the Robin Ramble walk) I saw several Western Spinebills and two Red robins. On my way around the trails on Dryandra Drive I saw parrots, Baudins white tail cockatoo's, a large dark skink and honeyeaters were around all the trails. I also saw a lot of fungi and millipedes. Go to our page on Centipedes and millipedes to see great photos of these interesting creatures.

Also late in June during the day we revisited Wungong Dam and walked from the first picnic area all the way up the East side to the dam wall. The trail was partly grown over but manageable we saw no birds or wildlife at all. The funny thing was on the dam wall which is high, windy and has no plant life we saw two transverse ladybirds, 3 millipedes and 15 skinks! It was worth the climb and worth the view but I'm not sure if it was worth pushing my way through bushes or whether next time I would take the road?

I have returned here in Spring to see the wildflowers. Go to the Flora of Western Australia pages to see so many beautiful flowering plants.

Mundaring Catchment area including Mt Observation

The whole area between the Great Southern Hwy and Brookton Hwy. Signs frequently say it is the Mundaring catchment. You must not visit die-back restricted areas.

I have taken a few trips through this area and have walked and driven for a couple of days and nights each time through this large catchment area on the roads. Be careful with some of these roads in winter as there were some large ruts but most roads were fine although not well sign posted. I enjoy the Wandoo trees along Yarra Rd. Through out all this area I have seen quail, fantails, crimson rosella's, cuckoo-shrikes or woodswallows, parrots, rainbow bee eaters in March, goldern whistlers, yellow and red robins, currawongs, tawny frogmouths, bats, night jars on the road at night (even managed to miss one with my wheels while it stayed on the road), black glove wallabies, western grey kangaroos, crickets, grass hoppers, dragonflies, moths and butterflies.

I have also heard boobook owls and different frogs in different places. With granite outcrops I expected to see more reptiles both day and night but didn't see many on any of the trips here. The plants vary and I have not been here in Spring but hope to return this year to see the wildflowers. It was disappointing to see pine plantations in this area and some how I found a small air strip on top of a ridge.

I have revisited here in June with some friends and kids in an attempt to start the Bibbulmun Track ( a 964km walking trail) in Kalamunda Perth. We shamefully lost the path in the first 100metres but soon re-found it only to be lost for most of the day and made our own way up and down granite valleys but we enjoyed it. Due to the noise I wasn't listening for wildlife but we did see fungi.

I returned here in summer (February) in the pursuit of reptiles. The tracks were now sign posted! I found a few skinks living in the Grass Trees and we had fun chasing one another round and round but I didn't find anything larger. I also went into the National Park (with no name) on Helena Rd Great Southern Hwy crossing Catchment Rd. There are two gates on this road one just on the Great Southern Hwy and one before Catchment Rd you can go through just shut the gates after you.

There wasn't much flowering as this is mostly a Wandoo tree area and has received little rain if any over the summer months. The Marri trees further west were flowering.

Before sunset there were many bats darting around, Western Grey kangaroo's and a wallaby and its joey bounded past, Kookaburra's sounded the bed time alarm where grey fantails, Rainbow bee-eaters and possible Tree creepers settled for the night. It only took 19minutes from starting my car after sunset for a Tawny Frogmouth nightjar to follow my headlights, this is the quickest yet. Go to wildlife tales to see more about these gorgeous birds.

On the road I came across this spider.

Go Here to see a short video of this spider biting me.

Go to our Creepy Crawlie section to see a whole lot of spiders from Western Australia.

It reared up to attack. Keep well away from these spiders. These photographs were taken with a zoom lens. It looks like a funnel web but its not. All spiders in the Mygalomorph group, like funnel webs and trap-door spiders rear up ready to attack. We have had this photograph identified and it is called the Black wish-bone spider

This large scorpion was seen on the roadside on Helena Rd near the Great Southern Hwy. Go here to see a short video.

This Sacred Kingfisher was sleeping on a branch when I caught it in my spotlight.